The University of Dundee has announced plans to cut 632 full-time equivalent jobs, while committing to an external investigation into “what went wrong” with the institution’s finances.
The cuts are the largest announced yet in the UK higher education sector this year and are equivalent to about one in five posts at the Scottish institution, which said it was unlikely that it could avoid making compulsory redundancies.
They come as the institution forecasts a £35 million deficit for 2024-25 – up from the £30 million figure quoted when former principal Iain Gillespie resigned with immediate effect in December.
Interim principal Shane O’Neill said that Dundee’s financial crisis had “has challenged us to ask some very fundamental questions about the size, shape, balance and structure of the university”.
“The measures we are now proposing would make an essential contribution in our becoming a more appropriately balanced and restructured institution,” O’Neill said.
“Getting there will not be easy and we are determined to take on board all relevant lessons from the past and the various factors that contributed to the current position.
“We are committed to an external investigation into what went wrong, which will be co-sponsored with the Scottish Funding Council, and we will accept and act on the findings of that investigation.”
Dundee said that staffing reductions would be spread across every school and directorate, with 197 full-time equivalent academic roles set to go, alongside 435 professional services roles.
The university said that it would seek to avoid compulsory redundancies, including through a voluntary severance scheme, but “the scale of the required staff reductions means that it is very unlikely that the need for compulsory redundancy will be mitigated entirely, noting the depth of the financial challenge we face”.
Dundee is also proposing to restructure its eight academic schools into three faculties, a “review of teaching efficiency” designed to “achieve a 20 per cent reduction in module delivery”, and a “reorganisation” of research into a “small number of focused research institutes” which would “minimise institution-funded research”.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, said that the cuts were “a hammer blow to hardworking and committed workers at the university who are being made to pay the price for egregious management failure”.
UCU members at Dundee are in their third week of industrial action protesting against the planned job cuts and Grady said that the union was “clear that there is an alternative to sacking staff and cutting courses, student support and vital educational provision in this city”.
The Scottish government has already provided a £15 million emergency loan to help the institution keep running while it seeks to resolve its financial crisis.
And interim principal O’Neill said savings in capital and operating expenditure had already recouped £17 million in savings this year. Disposals of estate property and intellectual property are also planned.
The institution has blamed a drop in international student recruitment, “ongoing structural underfunding of higher education” and increasing costs for its predicament.
As it announced the job cuts, Dundee said that the situation had been “compounded by internal factors” including “a longstanding structural imbalance with the scale and intensity of the university’s research profile being significantly greater than can be sustained from the scale of teaching and commercial activity delivered; inadequate financial discipline and control; poor capital planning and investment decisions; [and] weak compliance in financial control policies and lack of accountability”.
Former principal Gillespie had faced criticism of his expenses, including a £7,000 business-class trip to Hong Kong, as the university’s problems mounted.
“In setting out our proposals towards a financial recovery and a sustainable future we have adopted an approach of frank realism and honest self-criticism in our assessment of the current situation and the challenges faced,” O’Neill said.
“There is an urgency for us to act promptly and we will continue to work intensively with the SFC and other stakeholders to ensure delivery of the sustainable and successful future we need for this great university, which is integral to the economic, social and cultural well-being of the city, our region and beyond.”
Dundee’s announcement comes just weeks after the University of Edinburgh announced plans to cut £140 million from its annual budget, with job cuts expected there also.
